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Sophontology Dump
The reason we are the size we are is due to, mainly, 1. the evolution of bipedalism, 2. our gut, 3. our arboreal ancestors, 4. our diet, 5. our axial skeleton, and 6. our brains. Centauroids should be the main sophonic bauplan, IMO. Best manouevrability/brain size/manipulation ratio. However, i think there are definite size cxonstraints on an animal. Any large (1 ton plus) herbivore will probably have a very very small brain/EQ. Any small animal (20 pounds or less) will probably not be able to have a suitable brain and normal functions. 500kg+ carnivores will have a low EQ, as the skull sizes up differently from other parts of the anatomy. So i think that 20-500kg is the size range for a sapient omnivore in a terran world.Sapinets become sapients because 1) they have no further environmental adaptation to do so just refine their brains, 2) they need refined brains to survive against adveristy and competiiton, or 3) a change in environment allows past traitsto refine and/or increase in magnitude. For humans, 2 and 3 applied. There are more. We are like this because we are a transitionary phase from an arboreal to a terrestrial existence. This only happened because of the climate change that was going on. That kind of change has only happened about 8 times in muticellular history, and in each one something new and uniquely adapted arrived. The things needed for sapience, and you only need a majority of these, are: -Omnivorous or carnivorous diet. Omnivorous lets you expand your borders and spread widely, but carnivorous gives you more reason to reifne your brain and the materials to do so. -Manipulators. These will only be present, proper, in transition phase beings and centauriformes. If you want to count gribbly tentacles and beaks as manipulators, this can be expanded. -Maneouvrability. Sapients have, here, had reason to evolve sapience as a method of taking the fight to the predators. But they had to be able to run in the first place, and to extend their borders. -Social structure. It makes sure the neural prerequisites are there. -K-type reproduction. More care and materials invested in the young, that's straightforward. -Probably matrotrophy and a flexible immune system."Compared to quadrupedal locomotion, bipedal locomotion is more energy-efficient. Our more ape-like ancestors were predisposed to bipedalism due to their ancestors' adaptations for brachiation. Bipedalism also enabled our ancestors to hunt for longer periods than other hunting animals, since we expended less energy when hunting. Hence, our ancestors moved in the direction of persistence hunting (as opposed to ambush hunting) over millions of years. Persistence hunting required even more brainpower than ambush hunting, as it necessitates greater foresight and imagination on the part of the hunter. Your prey can sprint much faster than you, and they quickly disappear over the horizon. To increase your marginal chances of survival, you must be marginally superior in accurately predicting where your prey went. In order to (hopefully) locate your prey, you look for clues that it left behind in its flight. These clues serve as symbols representing the animal's behavior after the fact. Hence, your symbolic processing abilities must also be marginally greater in order to be marginally more successful at persistence hunting. Notice that these two areas of mental ability -- foresight/imagination on the one hand, and symbolic processing on the other -- roughtly duplicate the hemispheric division of the human neocortex. The left hemisphere is used for logic and language, which are primarily symbolic in nature; while the right hemisphere is used for empathy and creativity, which require imagination. Of course, the two neocortical hemispheres are connected via the corpus callosum, which allows a near-constant feedback loop between them. While I don't know whether our closest relatives have corpora callosa like ours, I suspect that ours are more elaborate due to the ancient demands of persistence hunting on both hemispheres. My point with all of this is to outline the highly unique circumstances which lead to our sophonthood. Since it's highly unique, it's therefore highly improbable that even a similar sequence would occur in the immediate evolutionary history of another sophont species. Now could certain adaptations, like bipedal locomotion, evolve on an alien world? Certainly. Bipedalism for saving energy has itself evolved at least three times on Earth: the dinosaurs (or their archosaur crown-group), the ancestors of kangaroos, and the ancestors of humans. But notice that bipedalism is not strongly correlated with intelligence -- only one out of the 3+ lineages that evolved it reached sophonthood."